Secrets of Simplicity: rules for being simple and usable (Giles Colborne)

Giles Colborne's presentation discusses strategies for simplifying designs. It identifies two new rules for simplicity. It also looks at why simplicity has become so important in interaction design, whether simplicity and usability are the same thing and exposes some myths about simplicity. It's a version of a highly-rated talk from the Usability Professionals' Association (UPA) conference in Portland in June 2009. I've added some 'Post-It' notes so it all makes sense! UPDATED 18 June 2009: Fixed some of the builds and fonts to improve the appearance.

Many people have the Suspicion that technology is out to get us. Making technology simpler seems like an obvious way to save ourselves. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/24017046@N05/2415666205/

Ten years ago, this was the standard for how we ought to access the internet. @gilescolborne

there are 113 links on a page when all I want to know is will it rain in Ithaca? this seems over- 113 complicated. @gilescolborne

...especially when you compare it to desktop widgets like this, which tell you the weather without the clutter. @gilescolborne

my Swiss army knife, has all these features which are supposed to be useful. But I hardly ever use it... @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/captainammonite/3316277831/

...Instead, Im more likely to pick up a screwdriver to open a Can of paint, stir the paint, gouge a hole in something, reach a coin thats stuck behind the fridge... or even tighten a screw. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/-po/302360126/

People are crying out for less @gilescolborne

One reason were drawn to whats simple is that were trying to get stuff done faster. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/wwarby/3296379139/

Were also trying to fit more in. Multi-tasking is easier when you keep the tasks simple. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/peninah/2468918040/

No one wants to read the manual. We want something simple we can pick up and use right away. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/e-coli/419976117/

And were using technology in safety critical environments. complexity can be a fatal distraction. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/cl191/2965160625/

We used to go to these guys when we wanted to get our hands on technology... @gilescolborne

...Nowadays, were buying and using technology as consumers. So we expect simple, usable consumer devices. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/pingping/61487601/

Simplicity has become a goal of our culture. Alain de Botton points out that cultures are drawn to create the things that are missing from their age and environment. @gilescolborne

So the 18th century was a time of revolution, social upheaval and disruption to the old order... @gilescolborne

...And the architecture of that period turned to ancient values and classical order. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/merry_meet/3468018982/

Fast forward a hundred years to the industrial revolution. people were reduced to components in factories... @gilescolborne

...Yet the Victorians aspired to rustic architecture and the medieval artisanship of the Arts and Crafts movement. @gilescolborne

SO to our age of confusing moral relativism and globalisation. your life can be disrupted instantly at any time by a stranger on the other side of the world... @gilescolborne

And in our confusing world we aspire to that which is minimalist, pared down and simple. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/hubmedia/2374756836/

Less is more Mies Van Der Rohe So for practical, emotional and cultural reasons we crave simplicity. For people working in usability, it can seem like usability and simplicity are identical. @gilescolborne

Simplicity is not the answer Donald Norman Unfortunately, for people looking for a panacea, simplicity isnt the answer to all your usability problems. @gilescolborne

Usability What consider to be usable varies depending on the context. the ISO definition of usability is efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction Efficiency Effectiveness Satisfaction ISO 9241-11 @gilescolborne

Business system Old school business systems tend to be imposed on users. Businesses want accountancy systems to be effective and efficient. user Satisfaction is nice but not top priority. Efficiency Effectiveness Satisfaction @gilescolborne

Many Call centres Call centre are focussed on efficiency. Their primary measure of usability is: how many calls can an operator get through in an hour? Efficiency Effectiveness Satisfaction @gilescolborne

Consumer web site Consumer web sites need to be effective and Satisfying to use. But consumers are poor at judging efficiency. Efficiency Effectiveness Satisfaction @gilescolborne

Simplicity If youre designing something simple for consumers, you have to hit high scores all three criteria. Ouch. Efficiency Effectiveness Satisfaction @gilescolborne

Simplicity Usability So simplicity is not the same as usability. Its just one case, and it may not always be the right strategy. @gilescolborne

But simplicity still matters. Mobile is a good example of an area where simplicity is Crucial. @gilescolborne

Simplicity is not the answer necessarily Donald Norman So its not the only route to usability. But people want and often need simplicity. @gilescolborne

If you want to design simple things youll find yourself directed to this book. Its good. But the advice inside is not very clear. @gilescolborne

oe try P Its not laws, its poetry. It works best if you let it wash over you. we need some Solid laws and clear strategies for simplicity. @gilescolborne

I dont want to hope that the hand of god touches my work. I want to know that I can make something simpler. @gilescolborne

Heres an exercise we try with new recruits. We take something that seems unnecessarily complex and ask them to... @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/redjar/136216608/

Ive seen some wonderful, creative solutions to this problem. They fall into four categories... The four solutions @gilescolborne

1. Remove features Get rid of some of those buttons that you never seem to use. @gilescolborne

2. Hide features Put some of the features behind a hatch where they wont get in the way all the time. OP EN @gilescolborne

3. Group features Move the important stuff so that its easier to find and put everything in logical groups. @gilescolborne

4. Displace features For instance, Move the features to an on-screen menu on the TV set. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/ckelly/185726479/

Sometimes people think instructions will make things easier. Adding more instructions doesnt improve simplicity. it just gives everyone an excuse to stop trying to improve things. @gilescolborne

1. Remove features 2. Group features 3. Hide features 4. Displace features @gilescolborne

Its not a great answer for our DVD remote. If you remove a feature, someone will care. And you create problems for yourself elsewhere... @gilescolborne

...you have to make sure you market this basic DVD player so customers know what theyre buying. And you have to have a customer support programme for all those people who didnt realise that one day, theyd need the subtitles button. @gilescolborne

removing features Can also make things feel more complex. This is the elevator in the Tokyo apple store. You cant choose where to go. It just shuttles from floor to floor. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/nrvica/22840347/

Logic says this is a simpler design. But people whove used it say it FEELS complex. They dont like to be out of control... @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/nrvica/22840347/

...Just like people who use wizards dont like the feeling of being on a conveyor belt with no real control. @gilescolborne

Choose your own adventure gives the same limited control. But we understand it because it has a story to hold it all together. @gilescolborne

Wizards Hide the story of whats really going on from the user. They make it hard for the user to build a mental model. the user never progresses past the Novice stage. @gilescolborne

Simplicity is not the answer Donald Norman Told you so Getting rid of features is hard. And it doesnt always work as well as wed hope. @gilescolborne

Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing more to take away Antoine de Saint Exupery But its an attractive solution. And it can work. The question is - how do you know what to take away? @gilescolborne

Everything should be as simple as possible - but no simpler Albert Einstein how do we know when weve made something as simple as possible? @gilescolborne

Make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience Albert Einstein This is what Einstein Really said. Its more complex. But its more helpful. @gilescolborne

Make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience Albert Einstein First, Weve got to understand whats at the core of the experience... @gilescolborne

Make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience Albert Einstein ...Then weve got to make sure we dont disrupt that. @gilescolborne

Its about whats core @gilescolborne

A few years ago I was asked to re- design an online bank for a company called Goldfish. They wanted it to match their brand values: friendly, Approachable and simple. @gilescolborne 64

On one screen they had a date selection control. This looks simple, doesnt it? Apr 2009 GO @gilescolborne 65

What is minimal? GO But the control was for selecting your bank statement. And it turned out to be too complex. @gilescolborne 66

You could select a date in the future. And Youd see an error message Saying how stupid you were. Not Friendly, simple or approachable behaviour Dec 2009 GO @gilescolborne 67

You could select dates from over a year ago. But the bank only kept statements for a year. Again: Not friendly, simple or approachable. Feb 2008 GO @gilescolborne 68

This bow is Aesthetically minimalist. All other movement is eliminated, accentuating the bow. Its undeniably Core. @gilescolborne

But imagine a courtier of the sun king bowing - all twirling hands and bending knee. Its still undeniably a bow. The ornamentation Draws attention to the core Bow. @gilescolborne

What makes it work is all that extra stuff is aligned with the idea of bowing. Its purpose is to emphasise, not distract. @gilescolborne

What matters isnt minimalism, its that Aesthetics and experience are aligned with the core. This helps us stay focussed and keeps things simple. Its about alignment @gilescolborne

Experience the proposition (game) Recently, I was asked to review a user experience. a firm wanted to get users to play a game based on their marketing Sign up to the programme, then programme sign up to a mailing list and get their friends to join in. Grow the audience @gilescolborne

Experience the proposition (game) Unfortunately, Did you get a the first high enough problem was, if score? you didnt get a high enough score on the Sign up to the game, you programme couldnt continue. Grow the audience @gilescolborne

Experience the proposition (game) To encourage them to keep Did you get a trying and sign high enough up, the company score? needed to offer a huge prize - a car. Sign up to the Win a car! programme Grow the audience @gilescolborne

Experience the proposition (game) Next, the company asked users to Did you get a invite their high enough friends to enter. score? So ask yourself: Sign up to the Would I like my Win a car! programme friend to win a car? Absolutely! And Would I like my friend to get the car that Im trying to win? Grow the audience Sadly, no. @gilescolborne

Experience the proposition (game) The users tasks werent aligned to the companys goals. Did you get a high enough The experience score? felt complex and contrived. Sign up to the it didnt work. Win a car! programme Leave Grow the audience @gilescolborne

Our advice was, Experience the proposition (game) once the user had completed the game, ask him Compare your to sign up and score post his score on an online scoreboard. Sign up to the programme This aligned with the competitive nature of the game. Grow the audience @gilescolborne

Experience the proposition (game) Then, ask him to challenge a friend to beat Compare your His score. score (We didnt need to give away a car to get Sign up to the people to invite programme friends.) Simplifying the Compare with experience was your friends about aligning users goals and tasks. Grow the audience @gilescolborne

Now we have some rules to help us eliminate what is unnecessary. Thoughtful reduction is about core and alignment @gilescolborne

What can we learn from our other strategies for simplicity? 1. Remove features 2. Hide features 3. Group features 4. Displace features @gilescolborne

There are a couple of ways to hide features. One is to use a hatch or slider... OP EN @gilescolborne

Another is to use a touch screen controller, like this one. However, a DVD player costs $40 and a normal DVD remote costs less than $1 to make. This touch screen would end up costing more than the DVD player. So its not a solution for The DVD problem. @gilescolborne

Even hatches like this are problematic, because they tend to break off and theyre more complex to manufacture. were simplifying by increasing complexity. Nevertheless, Hiding features can be a good strategy. @gilescolborne

Often we have several audiences - mainstreamers who want something basic, and experts who want more info or features or both. @gilescolborne

When youre creating a website to sell, say, laptops, if you dont give all the specs the experts hate it. And they tell the mainstreamers that those laptops are for babies. @gilescolborne

But if you show the mainstreamers all the specs they discover that they dont know what an L2 Cache is. The site is telling them theyre not qualified to own such a complex laptop. @gilescolborne

If you check the features of a MacBook on Apples website, you get a magazine style page with basic info for mainstreamers. @gilescolborne

Apple gives experts a link that will appeal specifically to them, but not the mainstreamers. @gilescolborne

When they click on it, they find a wealth of technical detail including specs, bullet points and data tables. Theyre happy. but the mainstreamers never have to know about this stuff. @gilescolborne

Hide things where people will nd them @gilescolborne

Our third strategy is to chunk things 1. Remove features together in groups which are easier to take in. 2. Hide features 3. Group features 4. Displace features @gilescolborne

We can make the play button bigger. Move it to the top. shade some buttons so that they stand out more. @gilescolborne

This strategy is the cheapest (and so probably the best for our $1 DVD remote control). To choose a good layout, it helps to know how the user thinks. @gilescolborne

If you were to memorise these numbers, youd have a hard time. in a week, chances are youd have forgotten them. 9 64 3 7 2 8 1 5 @gilescolborne 98

Here are the same numbers, but neatly arranged. Theres nothing to distract you. youll remember this in a weeks time, no problem. 123456789 @gilescolborne 99

All weve done is regularised the layout, and relied on a pattern that was already in your head. But it makes a huge difference. 123456789 @gilescolborne 100

Heres another example - a form for searching for train times. This works just fine in user testing, but people hesitate over it. @gilescolborne 101

Heres our redesign. By grouping the fields, using a regular grid and using a little white space instead of a lot of shading, we made it much simpler to use @gilescolborne 102

Youll find more good advice on strategies for simplifying through grouping in this book. @gilescolborne 103

Sometimes you need to add features to make somet hing simpler. By adding features you can complete a group that us ers expect. This is a pre-paid travel card that you can use on London transport. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/drpritch/206995378/

There are many problems with oyster cards, but one is that you cant use them all the time. @gilescolborne 105 http://www.ickr.com/photos/kasperweibel/210261931/

Hong Kongs octopus card is similar - but it does more. You can use it in more places - including in shops and vending machines at train and bus stations. It does more and that feels simpler because it fits with the users mental model of money I use when travelling. @gilescolborne 106 http://www.ickr.com/photos/ja-ae/1345116562/

OUr last strategy Opens some interesting 1. Remove features possibilities... 2. Hide features 3. Group features 4. Displace features @gilescolborne

Weve ended up with a simpler controller - but weve displaced features and complexity to an on screen menu. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/ckelly/185726479/

As a solution for the DVD remote, its not perfect - you need to spend a lot of time and money getting those menus right. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/ckelly/185726479/

But its elegant. And some people have decided its the right way to go. @gilescolborne

But theres somewhere else we can displace complexity - and that is into the users head. Take a complex task like planning travel. How would you make it simpler? @gilescolborne

About ten years ago, I had to STRATFORD-UPON-AVON design a travel planner. OXFORD I thought about LONDON BATH what was core. I decided that Travel is about managing your movements in space and time. So I began with a map. @gilescolborne

I let users create folders, name them as they pleased, and put whatever Tuesday they wanted into the folders. The users thought of labels Id never have imagined and Kids things used these simple tools to create complex plans. Travel discounts @gilescolborne

Because the tools were simple, they could see how to adapt them to suit their needs. @gilescolborne http://www.ickr.com/photos/-po/302360126/

This is the most satisfying form of simplicity. Creating something simple like twitter that people use in unexpected and imaginative ways. The tool is simple. But complex behaviour emerges from it. @gilescolborne

So we have four strategies that work in different ways. 1. Remove features But in each case, we cant 2. Hide features completely eliminate complexity. 3. Group features 4. Displace features @gilescolborne

Sometimes we cant remove features. Sometimes we 1. Remove features need to add them. 2. Hide features and sometimes fewer features 3. Group features can feel more complex. 4. Displace features @gilescolborne

Hiding features works - but we have to figure out where to hide 1. Remove features something so it can be found. 2. Hide featuresAnd it means we have to add components to 3. Group features the system. 4. Displace features @gilescolborne

Grouping features works - if the user has complex 1. Remove features knowledge. 2. Hide features 3. Group features 4. Displace features @gilescolborne

And when you displace features, you push complexity 1. Remove features to another part of the system (or the users 2. Hide features imagination). 3. Group features 4. Displace features @gilescolborne

I wanted to be able to state some laws of simplicity as well as some tips for achieving it. What about some laws? @gilescolborne

The rst law of simplicity: Complexity is never eliminated, merely reduced and displaced my first law is that, even if you reduce complexity, you will not eliminate it. So you must Ask yourse lf: where do I want the complexity to end up? @gilescolborne

The second law of simplicity: Simplicity is an experience it happens in the users head My second is that simpl icity is whatever your users think it is. Its their experience that determin es whether something is simple. @gilescolborne

Focus on these What is core Make your experience compact Align the experience to whats core Rely on existing user knowledge Decide where you want to place complexity Trust the user if you want to improve simplicity, you can add these focus points to the strategies. But above al l, Dont prescribe whats simple - you must trus t your users. @gilescolborne